panding the circle and harmony of minds, studying the hometown village of my hometown, participating in regional development aiming to create a sustainable region, implementing a dietary education system, installing cyclical style dairy farming, starting to improve the image of dairy areas and promoting local production for local consumption activities.

### 2. The Award by the Minister of the

Environment, “Promoter to establish a sound material-cycle society” in the 3Rs movement.

The “Promoter to establish a sound material-cycle society” award will be given to a participant, a corporation or an entity who has contributed a remarkable achievement to the proper promotion of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle of waste generation, in order to make a public recognition and commemoration to help promote the establishment of a sound material-cycle society, beginning Year 2006.

In fiscal 2008, six participants, fourteen entities and forty-nine corporations were given prizes, and the awards ceremony was conducted at the award rally of the “3rd National Convention for Promotion of 3Rs,” held in Yamagata City. Several examples of the promotions awarded are now given.

## (1) Award given to the “Promoter to establish a sound material-cycle society” in the 3Rs movement for an entity, Year 2008

Nagai City: The Rainbow Plan Promotion Conference (Nagai-City, Yamagata Prefecture)

A regional recycling system has been established and promoted by the conference, with coordination and cooperative labor among the citizens, farmers and the local municipals, where kitchen garbage from about five thousand homes in the central area of Nagai City are segregated and collected, composted, and then used in the growing of agricultural products on city farm land using the composted fertilizer with restraints on the use of agricultural chemicals and chemical fertilizer; such products are sold and consumed locally at home dining tables or used by school catering in the region.

## (2) Award given to the “Promoter to establish a sound material-cycle society” in the 3Rs movement for a corporation, Year 2008

Name of the company: Limited Private Company San\-in Create, Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture

Since Year 1990, the company has promoted the conservation of the environment by the reduction of industry waste and effective utilization of resources, employing a slogan of “Be kind to the earth and take good care of resources!,” with the cooperation of local municipal entities and schools, where the company recycles collected waste plastics to manufacture construction and container products and recycled plastic fuel, also developed an oil-reducing device in order to reuse the oil collected from waste expanded polystyrene for the thermal source fuel of the incinerator and other recycling equipment used in the factory site.

### 3. The “Container and Packaging 3Rs promotion Award by the Ministry of Environment”

Starting from Year 2006, the “Container and Packaging 3Rs promotion Award by the Ministry of Environment” has been set-up, so as to encourage and spread activities for the promotion of 3Rs in container and packing waste, exceptional promotion examples and manufactured goods contributing to the promotion of 3Rs for containers and packing have been awarded every year, in the three categories of the “Regional coordination and cooperative labors division,” the “Retail shop division,” and the “Products division.”

(1) The Year 2008 Grand Prix in the “Regional coordination and cooperative labors division”

Subject name: “A National Campaign Group for Reduction of Plastic Shopping Bags (Rejibukuro Herashitai Zenkoku Undo)”

Group name: The Liaison Council of National Life and School (Zenkoku Seikatsu Gakko Renraku Kyougikai), Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo

For many years the council have continued the movement to reduce plastic shopping bags, and so that ordinary people may participate in the campaign, from July 2007 in cooperation with other citizens' organizations started the first nation-wide promotion “A National Campaign Group for Reduction of Plastic Shopping Bags.”

A system was set up so that as evidence of refusing to receive a plastic shopping bag, a consumer participating in the campaign received a stamp from a retail shop on a “Campaign Group for Reduction of Plastic Shopping Bags Card” and then mailed the card to the campaign office. Although there was no monetary reward for the consumer, more than six thousand cooperating retail shops, thirteen towns, four wards, six cities and ten prefectures nationwide have participated in the promotion of the campaign, resulting in about 8.7 million cards being mailed to the campaign office and when including the reduction figures of the corporations and local municipal entities, more than 180 million plastic shopping bags were reduced.

## (2) The Grand Prix in the “Retail shop division,” of Year 2008

Business name: “ECO Promotion Service”

Company name: The Koseisha Company Limited, Sapporo-City, Hokkaido

The company has promoted and developed the “ECO Promotion Service” in order to contribute to the protection of the environment, by introducing ecological points of view and ideas, in such ways as a trial for returning clean clothes on a hanger with no plastic bag.